David Miliband's piccolo diplomacy

by lalith | May 20, 2009 at 09:09 pm

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Blair at least walked the walk. But this foreign secretary can offer only feelgood gestures of episcopal concern
I hope President Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka takes time out today to comment on the resignation of Mr Speaker. What the Sri Lankan government h as "wanted to see", he might say in the jargon of the new interventionism, is clean and transparent democracy in Britain. Speaking for all Sri Lankans, he would regard the affair of MPs' expenses as "unacceptable" and "not living up to their commitments". A group of Sri Lankan MPs would be visiting Britain to monitor developments.

Ridiculous? Yet those are exactly the words and tone of voice used by Britain's foreign secretary, David Miliband, in his dealings with what seems like half the globe. The Foreign Office wakes each morning and scans the world's conflicts to ponder where it might score a quick headline with a call for peace, reform, a ceasefire or "United Nations action".

I cannot see the point of Britain telling the world that "what we want to see is Russia on a different course". It merely infuriates every Russian. Why does Miliband say of Syria's dictator that "I've been talking for over 18 months to him about his responsibilities in the region", as if he were Lugard addressing a recalcitrant Nigerian chief? Why boast that he is "working on maintaining a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza" when he is doing nothing of the sort?

By checking on all the stories about Miliband's performance as the British Foreign Secretary, the end result can be graded as 'dismal'. He has acted as a 'yes man' to the USA and has displayed lack of knowledge of what is going on in the world.

His actions also go on to show that he always thinks that his decisions and ideas about what is going on in the world are correct and that he is inflexible.

On the issue of the Sri Lankan conflict, Miliband was wrong. It seemed that the reception he received in Sri Lanka was not warm enough. Perhaps, he expected a welcome which was given to the Britishers when Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) was one of their colonies and were trampling the the natives with their white boots.

The stand which Miliband is taking today, pushes him closer to being labeled as a LTTE sympathizer or, somebody will have to recheck his earnings and expenses with regards to the present 'MPs' Expenses' scandal in the UK.